Page 31 of Found at Sea
“Bind the beast,” I spat at them.
One of them wrapped her hands in ropes behind her back and another gripped her by the hair, holding her head in place. Out of the water, her tail whipped back and forth, and a warning was on my lips for them to watch out for it right before one of them was whacked and sent to the ground by the force of it.
I grabbed one of the ropes and swung down onto the sand before approaching the sorry excuse for men who tried—and failed—to keep this creature under control.
“Move aside,” I ordered, receiving no complaints from them.
After pulling my blade from the holster on my hip, I struck before she could move out of the way and dug it into the top of her tail. She cried out, and I only dug it in deeper, twisting it as I did.
The creature then looked up at me with fearful eyes.
Up close, she really was beautiful. A faint scale-like pattern covered her shoulders, and a sharp fin protruded from her forearm, but other than that, she looked like a true woman from the waist up. Her face was human, apart from the sharp teeth I’d seen earlier. However, now they looked normal, as if they only grew when she willed them to.
She started to transform. Her tail mutated and a pair of legs was soon in its place. She was completely naked, and I heard the lustful comments from the men of my crew.
Perhaps I’d allow them their fun once I had what I wanted, but by that time, she wouldn’t be nearly as pretty.
“Please,” she spoke in a voice that was human, but held an odd inflection. “You know not what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doin’, lass,” I answered, withdrawing my blade from her thigh. “You see, the heart of your kind is a luxury in these parts.”
“To harm a child of the sea is to anger the sea himself,” she spat at me, and as she did, her teeth sharpened again. “All who use dark magic pay a price, and those who help them share that price.”
I cut out her heart after that.
I awoke in a cold sweat. More horrifying was it hadn’t just been a dream, but a memory. She was the first mermaid I’d ever slain, and it had been the beginning of the end. Many more followed her to their watery graves. The payment I received made me and my crew richer than we’d ever believed possible.
I hadn’t asked the men questions about why they wanted the heart. But I was no fool. And in my knowing, I had participated in black magic, just as the mermaid had said before I’d killed her.
Dark mages used the hearts to make potions. To combine something as pure as a creature of the sea with dark magic made the mages even more powerful, giving them control of the element of water and more.
Doing business with them was how I’d found Alek.
After months of butchering the merfolk, the sea witch came to me. It’d been in the dead of night, and I’d woken to a presence in my cabin. In the corner of the room had been a woman with the most ashen face and dark holes where her eyes should’ve been. Dark hair floated out from her head, almost as if she were under water. And her voice, one I would never forget until my dying day, had begun speaking the words of the riddle. Speaking my curse.
At first, I had not believed it. I’d even mocked her.
And then her icy hands had been upon me, her sharp nails digging into my arms and her rotten breath in my face. There’d been no denying it after that. The mark on my chest was proof as well, the one that marked me as a cursed man.
Thinking of the mark, I touched it.
It was small and in the shape of a shell over my heart. Different curses had different symbols, but I had yet to come across one like mine.
After getting out of bed, I approached the window and peered outside. A faint glow was in the distance, signaling that the sun would awake soon. We were leaving Stonebridge that day, and I was eager to return to the sea. My men had nearly a week of whoring, drinking, and debauchery so they should be sated for a while.
I needed to find answers, to unravel the mystery of my curse and discover the key to breaking it. Before it was too late.
